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Rebecca Anne Proctor is an independent journalist, editor, author, and broadcaster based in Dubai and Rome, from where she covers the Middle East and North Africa. She is the former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar Art and Harper’s Bazaar Interiors.
December 8, 2016 – Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, Mary Beth Long discusses the formation of Donald Trump’s foreign policy strategy in the Middle East with host Paul Salem.
In its first official reaction to the fall of Aleppo, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) hailed the seizure of Syria’s second largest city as a “divine gift” to the Iranian regime and a prelude to bigger achievements by Iran and its regional proxies across the Middle East.
The governor of Yemen’s Jawf governorate, in north central Yemen bordering Saudi Arabia, told a press conference, December 15, that the Yemeni army had captured “a large number of militias, including Iranian experts and others from Hizballah… ,” according to al-Arabiya. The governor said that the Iranians and Hizballah personnel were providing the Houthi militias with information and support.
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A top Iranian religious figure has called on the Shiite minority in Pakistan to “stay united” and remain active and influential in society. Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, who is the head of the Iranian-controlled Ahl-ul Bayt – a Shiite-centric religious propaganda arm of the Iranian state – said that Iran “has no problems with majority of the Sunnis” but that its “fundamental conflict is with Wahhabis.”
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On December 15, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani delivered a speech at the 30th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran. He spoke about the need for Muslim unity to fight “colonialist countries” and the “Zionist regime [Israel]” on the same day Iranian-backed militia fighters massacred Muslim civilians in Aleppo. He also called for collection action to fight terrorism.
A hardline Iranian news site that is controlled by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) continues to seek to incite the Bahraini Shiite population. Quoting a Bahraini activist, the site propagated that the “international posture toward the political situation in Bahrain is merely for show” and aimed to “neutralize the Shiite opposition in the country.”
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Fatima Zolghadr, a parliamentarian from Tehran and a member of reformist Hope Faction, hailed the fall of Aleppo as a victory for the Iran-led “resistance” forces.
Tehran’s unwavering support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad continues to irk the Turks, according to press reports. On December 16, the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, and Iran’s vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, spoke on the phone. The discussion was ostensibly about Jahangiri’s upcoming visit to Turkey, but also focused on the Syrian civil war.
The authorities in the Iranian city of Shiraz have handed 74 people prison sentences ranging from one to eight years. The so-called crime of those sentenced was to gather for an unauthorized event at the tomb of Cyrus the Great, an ancient Persian king. The event happened in the last week of October and led to an outcry among hardliners. One hardliner, Ayatollah Hamedani, called the event an “anti-revolutionary” gesture that needs to be confronted.
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This week again Iranian leaders have been busy publicizing themselves as “promoters of Islamic unity.” On the one hand, Iranian leaders, like President Hassan Rouhani, speak of the illusive “great conspiracy” supposedly concocted by what he calls “big powers” to split the Muslim world.
Iran’s supreme authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a visiting Palestinian militant leader that “Israel will not exist in 25 years.” Khamenei made the remarks to Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, head o
The bloody fall of Aleppo, Syrian opposition forces’ last major urban stronghold, is now certain. Without outside assistance, the rebel groups found it impossible to withstand a ruthless air and ground onslaught by the Iranian-led military forces that are propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court (S.C.C.) recently ruled that a central element of the country’s controversial Protest Law relating to police power to ban public demonstrations is unconstitutional.
